A Look Back at Last Year's Final Table
Last year, the final 12 players were the only ones to return for the third and final day of play of the €10,000 High Roller event. While the field was peppered with household names, several of them fell quite quickly before the final table was even reached. Andrew "luckychewey" Lichtenberger, 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel, and Kristijonas Andrulis were just three of those to fall.
Eventual champion Laurent Polito began the day third in chips behind Tobias Reinkemeier and Alex Bilokur. That trio of players continued their domination of the table and ended up as the last three standing.
Reinkemeier was the first of the three to fall when he ran into the pocket jacks of Polito, and that vaulted the final two into heads up play.
As deals are allowed to be made on the European Poker Tour, the two quickly took to breaking down the remaining money and figuring out a deal. Bilokur held the chip lead at the time of the deal with 3.238 million to Polito's 2.318 million and the two opted to make a straight ICM deal based on those counts. Therefore, Bilokur was guaranteed to take home €295,451 while Polito would pocket €270,229. With all of the prize money chopped up, the two left just the title and the coveted Shamballa Jewels bracelet to play for.
Polito took a lead early and never gave it back, as the match came to a head very quickly. Bilokur was eliminated when his pocket nines failed to improve against Polito's pocket queens, and Polito was crowned the champion.
EPT9 Barcelona High Roller Final Table
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Laurent Polito | €270,229 |
| 2 | Alex Bilokur | €295,451 |
| 3 | Tobias Reinkemeier | €119,660 |
| 4 | Stanislav Labutkin | € 95,180 |
| 5 | Carlos Mora | €73.430 |
| 6 | Jean-Noel Thorel | €54,390 |
| 7 | Bertrand Grospellier | €43,150 |
| 8 | Joao Vieira | €32,630 |